Meet Dave and Deb of the Planet D [Interview]

Despite their busy schedule, Dave and Deb of the award-winning travel blog theplanetD, managed to set some time for an exclusive interview with VroomVroomVroom. The Canadian couple is definitely living up to their motto “Adventure is for Everyone” because they consider themselves ordinary people who love to travel. So whether you are an epic adventurer, meaningful traveler, adrenaline junkie or luxury traveler, you are sure to find some useful articles in the planetD. Get to know Dave and Deb by reading our exclusive interview with them below:

VVV: Just like most travel bloggers that we’ve interviewed, you guys gave up your regular job to travel. Don’t you miss working in the Toronto film industry? Some people would die to get a cool job like yours – being part of big budget movies such as Chicago and X-Men.

Dave & Deb: We don’t miss working in the film industry at all. I think being a producer, director or actor would be cool, but crew wasn’t the most glamorous job. We prefer to be in charge of our own destiny. With our travel blog, we get to call the shots. We choose the destinations we visit, we choose the companies we work with and we choose what we write about and make videos about. It’s a dream to be able to be your own boss while doing something you completely love. Most of all, we get to do it together which is wonderful because our jobs in the film industry kept us apart a lot.

VVV: You’ve mentioned that you moved to Vancouver to become famous musicians, do you still want to pursue that dream someday? What kind of music do you compose or play?

Dave & Deb: Dave was in a hard rock band in Vancouver and played the drums. I went to school for music theatre and sang mostly show tunes and pop music. We don’t have a desire to pursue that career at all either. We’re really happy with the lifestyle as travel bloggers. We always joke that we get to live the life of a rock star without all the drama. We get to see the world, we get to visit beautiful destinations, and when we are on assignment we are treated very well. We get to do all of this as our jobs, not as an escape from our lives. I often think that rock stars and movie stars work so that they can travel. We get to do this as a job.

VVV: Your achievements at Tour d’Afrique were really inspiring. Do you plan on joining the world’s longest cycling race again in the near future?

Dave & Deb: We don’t plan on doing that again. It was a great thing to do at the time, but physically and mentally it was draining. We do plan on doing something epic again in the future though. We love challenging each other to try new things. Some big adventure is definitely in the cards, but no, a cycling race for four months is not.

VVV: Having been married for more than 20 years, do you think travelling to different places and sharing new experiences together helped make your relationship stronger?

Dave & Deb: Traveling has definitely made our relationship stronger.  When we worked at our previous careers, it was travel that always brought us back together. We could go months at a time barely seeing each other; especially when Dave was working on feature films. It was travel that gave us the time away from our lives to reconnect and get to know one another again.

Through travel, we’ve been inspired to try new adventures, step out of our comfort zones, take time to talk and really connect. Being able to work together now has been a dream for us.

It’s not for everyone, but it is definitely something that makes our relationship thrive. We love working creatively together, we love pushing each other and we love exploring together.

VVV: You’ve both travelled to more than 100 countries, what’s the most memorable destination for you?

Dave & Deb: For Dave it is definitely Antarctica. He loves to photograph polar destinations. Antarctica is that final frontier and the wow destination that when you tell people you’ve travelled there, they are impressed. It was an extraordinary destination because the wildlife was so curious and we could see things that you can’t see anywhere else. Whales would surface beside our kayaks, leopard seals would ignore us as we floated by their ice flows, penguins would peck at our legs when we explored the sea shore and the icebergs and glaciers were huge. We had never seen such giant ice.

For me it was walking with Polar Bears in Manitoba Canada. It had been a dream of mine to see polar bears in their natural habitat. To walk along the shores of Hudson Bay and come within 560 meters of a mother and cub lazing on the shore was extraordinary. The mother allowed us to watch for at least an hour as they swam in the sea, slept on the shore and just relaxed in the summer warmth. She could have run off or charged us, but instead, she did nothing and it was a privilege I’ll never forget.

VVV: Do you have a bucket list of places that you would like to visit in the coming months?

Dave & Deb: We have a full schedule coming up with travels next to the Yukon, Canada. We’re going to a remote lodge above the Arctic Circle. We cannot wait to explore more of Canada. We are then off to Nova Scotia, Canada. It’s one of our favourite provinces to visit in our home country. After that we’re heading to the Cayman Islands and Panama. We have yet to get to either destination so we are really looking forward to it.

As far as bucket list destinations, Dave really wants to go to Norway and explore more of the Arctic and I really want to see the mountain gorillas in both Uganda and Rwanda. We hope to make both of these trips happen in the near future.

VVV: Have you ever tried renting a car or campervan? If so, please share your road trip experience with us.

Dave & Deb: We have done both. We rented a campervan in New Zealand and loved that experience. We’ve rented a car several times. Driving is our favourite way to explore the world. We actually used VroomVroomVroom while doing a road trip through Queensland a couple of years ago!

We’ve driven a car from England to Mongolia (that was a car we actually bought and then donated in Mongolia once we arrived). We’ve rented cars in Europe, South Africa, North America and Mexico. We haven’t rented in South America yet, but give us time.

There really are too many rental experiences to mention, we almost always rent a car when we travel. We love road tripping so much, we rounded up our best road trips in the world. We’d love for you to check it out.

VVV: Since you are both into music, please give us at least five songs that you usually listen to while on a road trip.

Dave & Deb: Our favourite part of road tripping is definitely the playlist. We love wailing at the top of our lungs. Some standard favourites are:

1. Home for a Rest by Spirit of the West
2. Up Town Funk – Mark Ronsin featuring Bruno Mars
3. Another One Bites the Dust – Queen
4. Californication – Red Hot Chili Peppers
5. Dream on – Aerosmith
6. All About the Bass – Megan Trainer

We have an eclectic mix of old school and new music on our play list. If it has a good beat, we will listen to it.

VVV: How long do you see yourself travelling? Do you have plans of settling down someday?

Dave & Deb: I think we’ll slow down a bit in the future, but we have no plans on stopping traveling. We love our jobs and we plan on doing it as long as we can. We are pretty lucky. We get to explore the world with the one we love. We don’t have to leave someone behind while the other goes off on a business trip. We get to mix work with play. It’s rare to find a career that you love, so we aren’t going to give it up any time soon.

VVV: With all the awards and recognition that you’ve received, what advice can you give to new travel bloggers?

Dave & Deb: Find your unique voice. People often ask us how to stand out from the crowd and how to find a niche. We always say, you have to know what it is about travel that you love yourself. Too many people go into travel blogging without any travel experience. Like all careers, you should have experience first. Travel on your own for the love of travel and then discover what it is that makes you love it so much.

For us it was how travel brought us closer together and how doing adventures made us more interesting people. We were happier when we were traveling, so it was a natural progression.

Once you have experience traveling you then have the authority to give advice and tell people about it. Take your time to grow your channels and don’t focus on numbers. Focus on content, connecting with your audience and staying true to yourself. The numbers and accolades will then eventually come naturally.

VVV: This is a random question that we ask our bloggers. If your life will be made into a film, what title will you give it and which actor/actress would you like to portray you?

Dave & Deb: Wow titles are hard! I’m going through a tonne that I love that have already been taken. I know who we want to play us, Brad and Angie of course. I’m not good with titles, but how about this one? Title – Around the World in 7 Years: A Love Story

VVV: It’s good to know that you guys have found your passion in travelling. Any last words to our readers?

Dave & Deb: Don’t ever give up on trying to find your purpose. I used to always say “I know I can be a success if I could just figure out what I want to do with my life.” It took us a long time to find our purpose in life, but we refused to settle. We could have lived comfortably with our lives in the film business, but we never would have felt fulfilled. We kept trying new things until we found what we loved. You’re never to old to make a switch.

If you enjoyed reading our interview with Dave and Deb of theplanetD, get to know the bloggers who have made it to VroomVroomVroom’s list of the Top Travel Blogs in the World.

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